When Thomas Harris's follow-up to "Silence of the Lambs" was announced, it was obvious that the filmed version would be soon announced. Yet, the pieces didn't fall into place quite as easily as those involved would have hoped. Anthony Hopkins was in, but Jodie Foster was in and out and in, then out again - instead, she chose to direct her own feature and Julianne Moore was brought in. Original "Silence" director Jonathan Demme passed, so producer Dino De Laurentis (who was working on "U-571") went a short distance to the "Gladiator" set, where director Ridley Scott said yes to the film. The screenplay was credited to two of the most highly regarded screenwriters in the business, Steven Zaillian and David Mamet, although apparently, Mamet's work did not end up in the final draft - he received credit due to guild regulations.

Although the final feature met with mixed reactions, it was a suprising success in this era of crackdowns on the "R" rating. Scott's picture is a different creature altogether; a horror film wrapped in grand elegance. Scott brought two "Gladiator" collaborators to the party - cinematographer John Mathieson and editor Petro Scalia, and both do excellent work. The movie is also different in terms of set-up; where Clarice was the main character in "Silence", she becomes a supporting figure here. As Hannibal himself has been let free, the story focuses on him instead. After Clarice (Moore) is demoted (her basement lab looks like Mulder's from "The X-Files", while Moore reminded me of Scully at times during the early scenes) after a botched drug bust, we are launched into the main story.

A previous victim of Lecter who has escaped, Mason Verger (an uncredited Gary Oldman), wants revenge on Lecter. It's Lecter himself though, that invites Clarice back into the game. The original picture had Lecter being simply evil, while here has gotten himself back out into the world - living in Florence, Italy he has become an art curator and occasionally stops off for a coffee. Yet, there's another individual on the hunt already in the neighborhood. An Italian detective named Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) wants the reward for Hannibal's capture, which turns out to be a predictably bad idea. Even though the result of his chase seems rather obvious, I'll give Scott credit for maintaining a respectable amount of tension throughout these scenes.

Also, I'll give Scott credit for a terrific first half. The picture was not exactly what I'd been expecting from it; although there is some definite violence early in the picture, the film maintains a fine level of tension simply from a combination of strong direction and wonderfully gloomy atmosphere (along with some interesting scenery). I had a feeling though, that "Hannibal" would turn into something different and less interesting eventually, and I was unfortunately right.

The scenes where Starling must go up against the FBI and a politican played by Ray Liota are entirely standard fare - speaking previously about "The X-Files", Moore's Clarice feels suprisingly similar to Scully again having to defend Mulder's work on aliens from the higher-ups that don't understand her. The film's second half also becomes darker and less atmospheric as Hannibal pays a visit to Clarice.

The performances are generally excellent. Moore's ability and range are once again remarkable, allowing herself to convincingly become a dark and lonely character - she does everything she can with a character that is less involved this time around. Hopkins is, as usual, an engaging villian who, now unleashed into the world, plans out his crimes, allowing the tension to build as to whether or not he's going to go after his persuers. Less interesting is Ray Liota as a politican who is against Clarice; he's often terrible here, but I will say that he's got little to work with.

Again, the film is technically impressive, with stunning cinematography, amazing production design, great editing and a typically great score from Hans Zimmer. It's too bad that the movie begins to fall apart as the film advances towards a shockingly gross ending.

But, of course, it continues on as "Rush Hour" director Brett Ratner begins his remake of "Red Dragon", the original Lecter outing.